No one can deny the benefits of beadlocks in the dirt, but sometimes the maintenance or potential for failure (due to improper use or lack of maintenance) is too great for some off-roaders to want to worry about. But what if you could put a beadlock onto a normal wheel, and to top it off make it a double bead beadlock? This is where Staun Products made its niche with its internal beadlock system. None of the current staff has ever tried a set of Stauns, but we've heard both stories of how cool they are and horror stories of extreme difficulty of installation. We wanted to investigate for ourselves, so we put them onto some Cepek DC-1 wheels with some 39-inch Krawlers. We used a 17x9 DC-1 wheel, and it's very important to note exactly what type of wheel you run if you're thinking of running Staun's internal beadlocks. An internal beadlock for a 7x9 wheel will not fit a 17x8 wheel, so you need to be specific when ordering. You'll also have to start with a wheel that the Staun internal beadlock is compatible with.
Since this was our first time trying these internal beadlocks we went to Xtreme Unlimited in Oceano, California, to make sure we did this correctly (after all, we're showing you how to do it so we need to make sure we know what we're talking about!).
 When thinking of using a Staun...  When thinking of using a Staun beadlock, you'll need to make sure the wheel's center is flat enough and there is a proper amount of room on the wheel to drill a hole for a second valve stem (for the inner tube)..... |  .....Put a few pounds of air...  .....Put a few pounds of air into the inner tube and stick the inner tube on a bare wheel to find the correct place to drill the new valve stem hole. Once you locate the correct point, drill the first wheel and the rest in the exact same spot...... |  .....Make sure to leave no...  .....Make sure to leave no aluminum burs hanging off the drilled hole. Staun recommends drilling within eight inches of the original valve stem hole. Also, make sure you are going to clear your brakes and or axle knuckles with the inner tube's valve stem placement. |
 We used some 17x9 Dick Cepek...  We used some 17x9 Dick Cepek DC-1 wheels, but we had them powdercoated the color that the old Dick Cepek suspensions used to be (in honor of the name). We powdercoated them first before drilling the secondary valvestem hole, but then took the wheels to Arroyo Grande Powder Coating to have them clear coated again for extra protection. |  Staun provides unique "air...  Staun provides unique "air channel" valve stems that need to be contoured to fit the wheel by bending them to fit the wheel (without using force on the valve stem itself)..... |  ......This new air channel...  ......This new air channel valve stem will allow you to still deflate and inflate the wheel even with the inner tube pressing against the wheel center. |
 This may get a bit scary to...  This may get a bit scary to some of you so have a competent off-road shop do this for you if you feel queasy about this, but you'll have to make sure the edge of the bead is smooth and without any burs. Otherwise you leave potential for puncturing the inner tube. We used some pneumatic power and a light touch to take care of the sharp edges that we found on our Krawlers. You won't have to do this with all tires, but a few manufacturers generally have a sharp bead lip on their tires, and those need to be addressed. |  Before sticking in the inner...  Before sticking in the inner tube, you'll need to first seat the inner tire bead onto the wheel. After that, you'll need to install the tube guard halfway onto the wheel before sticking in the inflatable inner tube. Staun recommends getting these on first and then installing the air channel valve stems, but we found it easier to install the air channels before squeezing in the tubes but after the tube guards are in. Staun provides a little baggie full of white powder to use on everything during the install, but we'd suggest just being prepared with an extra bottle of baby powder just in case you feel you need more powder than what Staun provides. |  Once we had the rear bead...  Once we had the rear bead of the tire over the wheel lip and the Staun internal beadlocks installed, we called a mobile tire service (Tire Express) to seat the outer bead onto the wheel. This has to be done extremely carefully since the tire bead has to fall in between the air channel valve stem and the lip of the wheel..... |
 .....If your tire guy doesn't...  .....If your tire guy doesn't feel comfortable performing this last step, then don't try and convince him to do it and find someone else capable of completing the task, as you'll have to order and wait for more air channel valve stems if they're damaged. |  Once everything is together...  Once everything is together there is barely any indication that this is a double beadlocked wheel and only a sharp eye will notice the second valve stem..... |  .....Not only does the Staun...  .....Not only does the Staun allow us to run both an outer and inner beadlock, but it also reduces the maintenance of a beadlock down to checking the inner tube's air pressure...... |
 .....If you find the tire...  .....If you find the tire losing air after installation, it is likely that the air is seeping from the newly.... |  .....installed air channel...  .....installed air channel valve stem and the exterior nut just needs to be tightened (at least that's what we found). |  How Low Can You Go? Staun...  How Low Can You Go?
Staun recommends a process for finding out how low (of pressure) you can actually go before you go out and do some damage to your wheel package...... |
 ......First, pull the truck...  ......First, pull the truck onto level ground and deflate the tire completely (leaving the inner tube fully inflated-Staun recommends fifty pounds of pressure). Take a measurement of how tall the tire is at the point. Then inflate the tire until it is just one inch taller. Check the pressure again, as this is the lowest tire pressure you can run without damaging your Staun internal beadlocks (at slow speeds under normal use! We know you can break anything if you try hard enough.). | | |